911 i just witnessed an academic murder

[wolffyluna]

I was going to save this for a link post, but no, this deserves it's own post.

I've been working my way through Brett Devereaux's back catalogue. He is s a history blogger who focuses on military history. I can feel some of you cringing already. But unlike a lot of history bloggers, he is an actual academic, and uses primary sources, and goes through and points out what evidence he has for things and goes through details like "the plausible range for the Athenian population in 400 BCE is between x and y, Doe et al thinks it is y because of abcd." I like his stuff. It's good grist for the world building mill.

Devereaux cares about a lot of things, but he has a particular bugbear about people treating Ancient Sparta as something to emulate. In particular he is irritated by Pressfield, a guy who loves Sparta and keeps getting cited by the US Department of Defense.

Now, the posts I've been reading through recently is the Universal Warrior Series. It's about how there's this idea that there is:

1. A universal set of experiences and ethics that occurs through all Warriors[tm]
2. and that this is a thing one wants to emulate.

The first two (technically 3) parts break down how that first point just makes no sense. Roman legionaries in 400 BCE were having a very different time compared to Great Plains cavalry in the 1800s and yet a different time to French soldiers in World War 1. All good grist for the worldbuilding mill.

But that last part, going through why the Universal Warrior[tm] Ethos sucks... it's a brilliant piece of rhetoric and an assassination of an idea. It's just a thing of beauty. I want to describe it, but I shall not, because that would be spoilers. Imagine an essay with something you could meaningfully describe as spoilers!

I am kicking my feet about this beautiful called shot.

Comments

[lb_lee]

Mori: oh shit you've sold me, gonna read this since I need a distraction and also fuck Sparta.

[wolffyluna]

If you want more Fuck Sparta, he also has a whole series on that: https://acoup.blog/category/collections/this-isnt-sparta/

[lb_lee]

8D thank youuuuu!

[lb_lee]

Oh shit, we're reading the "this isn't Sparta" series, and while we came because seriously, fuck Sparta, these blog posts are giving a chilling explanation of our family's behavior that we really didn't expect.

So thanks for linking us this, it's even MORE educational than planned.